THERIDION. 
198 
two anterior ones, which are placed on a protuberance, being the smallest, and the two 
posterior ones the largest of the eight; those constituting each lateral pair are seated on a 
small tubercle, and are contiguous. The cephalo-thorax is convex, glossy, compressed before, 
rounded on the sides, and has an indentation in the medial line ; the falces are conical and 
vertical; the lip is semicircular, and the sternum is heart-shaped, with small prominences 
on the sides, opposite to the legs. The colour of these parts is red-brown, with the exception 
of the extremity of the lip, and an irregular spot on each side of the cephalo-thorax, which 
have a yellowish-white tint. The maxillae are enlarged at the base, where the palpi are 
inserted, inclined towards the lip, and of a yellowish-white hue, with an irregular, red-brown 
spot on the outer side. The legs are long, slender, provided with hairs and a few erect spines, 
and have a yellowish-white tint; the first pair is the longest, then the fourth, and the third pair 
is the shortest; each tarsus is terminated by three claws; the two superior ones are curved 
and pectinated, and the inferior one is inflected near its base. The palpi resemble the legs 
in colour, and have a curved, pectinated claw at their extremity. The abdomen is subglobose, 
thinly covered with hairs, and projects over the base of the cephalo-thorax ; it is of a red- 
brown colour, with a pale-yellow band in the medial line of the upper part, which is broadest 
at the anterior extremity, and tapers to the spinners; the sexual organs are prominent, of a 
red-brown hue, and have an obtuse, black process in connexion with them, which projects 
forwards towards the sternum; the colour of the branchial opercula is yellowish-brown. 
The male, according to the description given of it by M. Koch in Herrich Schaffer’s 
‘ Deutschlands Insecten,’ Heft 127, is smaller than the female, and its abdomen, which is 
more cylindrical, is curved downwards at the posterior extremity, and almost black; the 
yellow, longitudinal band, also, on the upper part is much smaller, and bisected transversely. 
Its legs are longer than those of the other sex, and have somewhat of a reddish-yellow hue ; 
and the palpi are long, and of a dark-brown colour, the digital joint excepted, which is black, 
with a yellowish, curved extremity; the colour of the palpal organs (der Knoten) is chesnut- 
brown. 
This rare spider has been taken among grass near woods at Oakland, and has also been 
captured in Essex by Mr. R. H. Meade. In June the female fabricates a globular cocoon of 
white silk, of a slight texture, measuring one tenth of an inch in diameter, in which she 
deposits about fifty spherical eggs, of a pale, yellowish-white colour, not agglutinated together. 
The cocoon is attached to the spinners by short silken lines, and is transported with her 
wherever she goes, in the manner of the Lycosce. 
Theridion versutum. PI. XIV, fig. 124. 
Theridion versutum, Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. xviii, p. 302. 
— — Blackw., Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. viii, 
p. 444. 
Length of the male, l±ths of an inch; length of the cephalo-thorax, ith, breadth, Ath; 
breadth of the abdomen, T ' 3 th; length of an anterior leg, §ths; length of a leg of the third 
pair, Aths. 
